Meet our Leaders
Our leadership team is responsible for organizing knowledge-sharing around gender diversity and inclusion issues among AIB members, as well as facilitating professional development for women educators in the IB field.
Below, you’ll find background details on each of our team members, our leadership roles and responsibilities, and contact information to help you connect with us online.
For information on WAIB’s previous leaders, please visit our Past Executive Boards page.
Saba Colakoglu
WAIB President
WAIB President
The WAIB President oversees all Shared Interest Group functions, including member outreach, event coordination, and financial management.
Saba Colakoglu
Dr. Saba Colakoglu is a Senior Lecturer in the Organizational Behavior group at the Scheller College of Business, Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, U.S.A. She received her PhD in Human Resources and Industrial Relations from Rutgers University, School of Management and Labor Relations in 2009. Saba teaches and conducts research in areas related to human resource management and organizational behavior with a cross-cultural and international focus. Her research in these areas appeared in such journals as Academy of Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Organizational Behavior, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Human Resource Management Journal, International Business Review, Thunderbird International Business Review, and Journal of Global Mobility in addition to numerous book chapters and conference proceedings.
Prior to joining Georgia Tech, Saba was on the faculty of Berry College in Rome, Georgia as a tenured Associate Professor of Management and before her academic career, she worked as a Human Resource Management professional at Nokia Networks focusing on selection and talent development.
In addition to her teaching and research, Saba serves on the editorial review boards of International Journal of Human Resource Management, Human Resource Management Review, and Journal of Global Mobility. She has been serving on the board of Women in Academy of International Business (WAIB) since 2017. She is the faculty advisor for Georgia Tech Society of Women in Business and the co-ed business fraternity, Alpha Kappa Psi.
Noemi Sinkovics
Vice-President
Vice-President
The Vice-President assists the President with responsibilities designated by the President, and partners with other Executive Board members on their duties and tasks as needed. The Vice-President is also responsible for managing WAIB awards (e.g. Woman of the Year, Emerging Scholar) including their eligibility requirements, nomination processes, and implementation.
Noemi Sinkovics
Noemi Sinkovics is Reader in International Business at the University of Glasgow, UK. Prior to that she worked at the University of Auckland, New Zealand and the University of Manchester, UK and held a Fox Visiting Scholar position at Temple University, USA. In addition to her role as Vice-President of WAIB, she is also serving on the board of the AIB UK and Ireland Chapter as Secretary. Noemi is Associate Editor for Critical Perspectives on International Business, a niche journal in the International Business journal landscape (currently, the only journal that exclusively supports critically reflexive discussion of the nature and impact of international business activity around the globe from a number of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives). She is Co-Editor-in-Chief for Data in Brief, an Elsevier Elements Journal.
Her research interests are social, environmental and economic upgrading in global value chains, sustainable development, and theoretical and practical issues around entrepreneurship (including international and social entrepreneurship). Her work has been published in Journal of World Business, International Business Review, International Marketing Review, Journal of Business Research, Management International Review, Journal of International Management, European Journal of International Management, Journal of Interactive Marketing, critical perspectives on international business and as chapter contributions to edited volumes.
Joan Lilian Ogendo
Chapter Liaison Officer
Chapter Liaison Officer
Joan Lilian Ogendo
Joan Lilian Ogendo, PhD. holds a PhD in Business Administration Strategic Management option and MBA in Strategic Management from The University of Nairobi, Kenya; Bsc. in International Business from US International University-Africa. She is a Senior Lecturer in Strategy and International Business Management; A Certified Public Accountant and a member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK); An Associate Counselor and a member of the Kenya Counseling and Psychological Association (KCPA); and the Founder & CEO of Emerald-El Jay Management Consultants Ltd. She has corporate work experience in health, finance, audit and manufacturing organizations, both locally and in Multinational Enterprises; as Finance and Administration Manager, General Manager, Senior Auditor and Project Officer in Finance.
Author of two books https://www.palgrave.com/de/book/9783319520353 and https://www.morebooks.de/store/gb/book/balanced-scorecard-in-strategy-implementation/isbn/978-3-659-86069-0; and some articles in International Journal of Economics, Business and Management Research; Journal of Strategic Management; Scholars Journal of Economics, Business and Management; Journal of Human Resource & Leadership and Saudi Journal of Business and Management Studies; a Panelist at the IV International Meeting of Management and a Guest Editor of Special Issue article in AD-Minister Journal.
Areas of research interests are strategy implementation, corporate governance, balanced scorecard, emerging markets, corporate strategy, knowledge management, business ethics and the big five personality traits.
Stephanie Wang
Academic Research Officer
Academic Research Officer
Stephanie Wang
Dr. Stephanie Lu Wang is Samuel & Pauline Glaubinger Professor & Associate Chair at the Department of Management and Entrepreneurship, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. Stephanie’s primary research interests lie at the intersection of internationalization and social/environmental sustainability. She is particularly interested in studying emerging market multinationals and cultural industries as research contexts. Stephanie has won numerous international awards, such as the Poets & Quant’s Best 40-Under-40 Business School Professors in 2022, Alan Rugman Fellow in 2021, Emerging Scholar Award in International Management from the Academy of Management (AOM) in 2019, the Academy of International Business (AIB) Best Paper Award in 2018, the Inaugural Journal of Word Business (JWB) Best Phenomenon-Based Article Award in 2018, the Woman AIB Emerging Scholar Award in 2017, the International Management Division Best Dissertation Award (finalist) in 2015, the Best Paper Award from the AOM in 2015, Excellent Service Award from both AOM and AIB, and others. Stephanie serves as an Associate Editor for the Global Strategy Journal, an Associate Editor for the Business Horizons, a Special Issue Editor for the Journal of International Business Studies, a Consulting Editor for the Journal of International Management, and an editorial board member of the Academy of Management Review. She is the Research Director of Women in the Academy of Busines (WAIB) and faculty advisor for the Indiana University Chapter of Ascend, the largest non-profit Pan-Asian organization for business professionals in North America, and the founding faculty advisor of Quant Consulting Club at Kelley School of Business. Stephanie is a Non-Resident Research Fellow of the Core Research Team at the Center for Emerging Markets of Nanyang Business School at the Nanyang Technological University.
Yingying Zhang Zhang
Events-Membership Officer
Events-Membership Officer
WAIB’s Events-Membership Officer is responsible for mentoring program assistance, membership promotion, and events coordination.
Yingying Zhang Zhang
YingYing Zhang Zhang is currently a Full Professor of Management at Graduate School of International Management, International University of Japan (IUJ). Prior to her position at IUJ, she was a faculty member at CUNEF, Spain. She has also held several visiting positions as professor and scholar around the world in the US, China, UK, Mexico, Colombia, and Germany. She frequently publishes research articles in management journals and has written several management books, with the latest one People Centric Innovation Ecosystem (2023 Cambridge University Press). She has been a guest editor for several special issues related to sustainability and emerging markets.
Stacey Fitzsimmons
Communications Officer
Communications Officer
The Communications Officer is responsible for managing WAIB’s email listserv, promoting and maintaining WAIB’s social media presence, maintaining the official SIG website, and supporting the group’s various initiatives, as needed.
Stacey Fitzsimmons
Stacey Fitzsimmons is an Associate Professor of International Management at the Gustavson School of Business, University of Victoria. Her goal is to improve the way people work with others across differences. Her current research examines how immigrants, refugees, their descendants, and bicultural employees each contribute to their teams and organizations. Her research helps organizations value multicultural employees’ skills that often go unrecognized. Stacey’s research has been published in Academy of Management Review, the Journal of International Business Studies, Human Resource Management Review, and Organization Studies. Her awards include the Academy of Management’s International Human Resources Scholarly Research award and the Women in the Academy of International Business (WAIB) Emerging Scholar award. She serves on the editorial review boards of Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Business Research, and the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An international journal. She previously served as WAIB Academic Research Officer for 2021-23. She is on the core research team for the GLOBE project, and is currently guest editing special issues at both Journal of International Business Studies (on global mobility), and the Journal of World Business (on EDI in IB).
Diana Madibekova
Student Member at-Large
Student Member at-Large
Diana Madibekova
Diana’s research is placed at the intersection of business and society. As a qualitative researcher interested in developing new knowledge, Diana’s interests include grand (societal) challenges, and specifically how businesses can contribute to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and broader societal peace. Her PhD dissertation is on the latter topic and explores the role of multinationals in enabling or hindering peace in the Turkish context. Prior to her doctorate, Diana worked as a regional compliance officer at a financial institution overseeing multiple EU markets and managing regulatory relationships. She also interned at Credit Suisse Poland and the Embassy of Spain in Kazakhstan.
During her previous roles, she has actively supported women’s networking and career development initiatives. Most recent, Diana is an elected board member of WAIB (2023-2025).
Rimi Zakaria
Secretary-Treasurer
Secretary-Treasurer
The Secretary-Treasurer is responsible for keeping the minutes of WAIB Executive Committee and Annual Business Meetings, the distribution of any written materials intended for circulation among the WAIB membership, the active solicitation of funds from relevant institutions to support WAIB activities, and managing WAIB account balances, including the general operating funds and the Helping Hands scholarship funds, as well as providing an annual report of finances to members of the Executive Board.
Rimi Zakaria
Rimi Zakaria, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Management at the College of Business and Economics, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. As an international student turned immigrant to the US (and a global citizen), Rimi’s commitment to the discipline of IB has been an organic growth, given her exposure to diverse cultures, mindsets, and lifestyles. She is passionate about educating her students through experiential, technology-forward, and feedback-driven approaches. Her research is cross-disciplinary and is particularly situated at the crossroads of international business (IB), strategy, and sustainability.
Rimi’s service commitments include diversity- and pedagogy-based projects (e.g., diversity/inclusion of underrepresented students; compensation equity for faculty; mentoring, advising, recruitment, retention, and belonging of female/Black/Hispanic students/scholars; writing teaching cases). Before joining the WAIB board as the Treasurer, she served the Academy of Management (AOM) International Management (IM) Division in various capacities, including on the Teaching, Communications, and Doctoral Student committees.